Icons during network play

[Snoots]

Hi, recently started using wormnet and have pretty much managed to get myself sorted out without having to ask a lot of questions. I have one thing which is annoying me though...during play I quite often get a symbol come up in the top right of the screen which is two networked computers (and worms) and a cross through the middle - to me this implies that the network is weak and that it won't hold up, whereas in actual fact I have no problems whatsoever when I'm playing - does the symbol mean something else or is it just lying?! Thanks a lot!

[franpa]

it is just a graphical representation for lag.

[KRD]

We could use new players who can get themselves sorted on WA. *Unleashes shameless advertising.*

http://www.nanacide.com/wahelp/info-better.php

http://www.nanacide.com/wahelp/info-updatefeatures.php

http://www.nanacide.com/wahelp/info-buy.php

[Snoots]

So does that mean my comp is lagging or the network or not? just want to make sure i'm not ****ing anyone off by being too slow. And i'd love to be playing WA and i tried forever to get it to work properly on vista but thats obviously the reason i'm playing WWP.

[KRD]

Lag is a rather normal occurrence. It's not always easy to determine whose fault it is since the problem can be anywhere between the host and another player, but as long as you don't see the icon for seconds at a time after each turn, you should be fine.

Here's a quick way of checking how stable your connection is:

Start > Search > type in "Command Prompt" and run the only result that comes up. Then once the black window opens, type in this: ping www.google.com -t

Press enter and wait a while to see how high and irregular the numbers [in milliseconds, ms] are and whether many of the packets are getting lost. If it looks particularly bad, copy the results to a post here so we can have a look. You stop the command with Ctrl + C. On Windows XP, anyway, but I hope Vista didn't change that.

[Muzer]

Start > Search > type in "Command Prompt" and run the only result that comes up.
Or just go to start --> run, type cmd and press OK

[franpa]

there is a fixed 3 seconds of lag (or there is in W:A) to allow a buffering of commands to smooth the gameplay on the other players machines. I have already requested this to be lowered to 2 seconds or less since most people have some form of broadband now.

[KRD]

That hard-coded delay does not make the network problem icon appear.

Why oh why always the extra info that's bound to only confuse...

[bonz]

Or just go to start --> run, type cmd and press OK
Or press Win-key + R, then enter cmd.
Or, like I do, create a shortcut to the command prompt. I use Ctrl+Alt+D. (D as in DOS Prompt :D)
That hard-coded delay does not make the network problem icon appear.
Hmm.
IIRC, WA's network code is indeed crappy, hence the planned fixing by DC & CS.
Surely, if people can play ressource hungry FPS games on their high-end machines with low pings over the internet on servers with 64 players, it's quite strange that a game like WA often has such large lag.
Why oh why always the extra info that's bound to only confuse...
Because franpa.

[franpa]

That hard-coded delay does not make the network problem icon appear.

Oh, that I did not know. EVERY single game i've ever played online over the past year or 2 has had lag between turns that lasts (on average) 3 seconds... which means even more of my life was wasted on this game -.-

[KRD]

Oh, that I did not know. EVERY single game i've ever played online over the past year or 2 has had lag between turns that lasts longer then 3 seconds... which means even more of my life was wasted on this game -.-

Ouch. I can't even remember the last time I saw that symbol, unless it was when someone disconnected completely. :(

[bonz]

Oh, that I did not know. EVERY single game i've ever played online over the past year or 2 has had lag between turns that lasts longer then 3 seconds... which means even more of my life was wasted on this game -.-
Could it be that you mainly play with people from across the world?
After all, you're down under in Australia.

[franpa]

Yes, that is most likely the case since australian internet sux compaired to a lot of other places.